Archive for March, 2007

I mentioned it the other day, but just to make sure that the people who keep searching for it actually find what they’re looking…Canberra’s 1053 2CA are not covering the AFL this year. If you want to hear the AFL on the radio then you will have to make do with the ABC coverage which I don’t think is quite as much fun.

Alternatively, 3AW, who 2CA sourced the AFL from for the last two years, still broadcast it, and they have a webstream. See their website or the AFL website for details.

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Just wondering, why did former Rural Fire Service commissioner Phil Koperberg get appointed to Environment, Water and Climate Change, and Nathan Rees got Emergency Services and Water utilities?

Surely Mr. Koperberg is more experienced in Emergency Services than a former staff member of Morris Iemma, and wouldn't it have made sense to consolidate Water and Water Utilities? Also, what exactly does a state minister for Climate Change do that isn't already covered by a federal ministry?

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I can't see the logic in those cabinet appointments.

P.S. Somehow I managed to tip every game tonight correctly…could this be an omen for the rest of the weekend?

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I’ll write the statistical rundown shortly (some time in the next 24 hours), but first an opinion piece.

Canberra’s first radio ratings have been released for the year, and I can only say that I’m shocked. The radio station for people without ears has won the ratings (666 ABC Canberra), with 18.5% of the audience.

Somewhat surprisingly Canberra’s two FM music stations did quite poorly…they both lost a fair bit of ground. FM 104.7 down to 18.4% from 22.2%, and Mix 106.3 dropping even further to 18% from 22.2% (they were equal leaders last survey).

2CC lost a little bit of ground, 8.9% from 9.3%, which is interesting considering that the programming is an awful lot better than on 666.

JJJ were next, gaining ground to 8.7% from 7.0%, followed by more strong gains for the ABC, Radio National 8.2% from from 5.8%, and Classic FM 7.3% from 4.8%.

2CA were the only commercial music station to gain, 4.3% from 2.9%. I’ll miss the AFL on 2CA this year, but it’s good to see 2CA gaining ground again.

I can honestly say that NewsRadio being the only ABC station to lose ground does not surprise me, it’s a station designed for 15-30 minute listeners and it requires too much attention for most people. It should have stayed on AM and left room for 2CA to move to FM. NewsRadio dropped to 2.7% from 3.1%.

Unlisted stations attracted an audience of 5%.

The amazing swing towards ABC stations in these ratings, and away from the commercial FM stations, indicates to me that the sample group may not have been particularly similar to the one used last time. Perhaps not enough people are receiving the ratings books for the sample groups to be consistent.

Whilst it is possible that this is an accurate reflection of the radio audience in Canberra, I find the large swings just a bit unusual, and I fail to see how such a large number of Canberrans could all change to the ABC (or any other group for that matter) in the one survey. Perhaps these ratings are truly reflective and previous ones weren’t, perhaps it is the other way around, I don’t know. But what I do know is that if these ratings are accurate, that I live in a town filled with a lot of people who don’t use their ears.

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Pru Goward, the only candidate to doorknock every home in Goulburn, has been elected to the New South Wales parliament as the Liberal member for Goulburn.

It’s a pity that her side didn’t win the election though as they had a fantastic water policy.

Ms. Goward has ruled out a front bench role for at least a year so that she can focus on the issues of her electorate. It’s good to see a good candidate get elected and do the right thing by the people who voted for her.

Meanwhile in Monaro, they had a good result too, with Labor member Steve Whan being reelected. Steve seems to be doing a good job (especially impressive with the poor government he had to contend with) and deserved to win.

If next year’s ACT election mirrors the good outcomes of Goulburn and Monaro, then we will never have to hear from Jon Stanhope ever again. Still, I’d be happy with having him in opposition…still have to hear from him but at least he wouldn’t be able to drain the budget.

Samuel

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Since about 12:40am my day has been quite interesting to say the least. A series of peculiar events had me in quite a glum and sour mood…however I would like to thank Telstra for tipping me right over the edge in to insanity.

For some reason Telstra just love to ring me on my mobile even though I have asked them not to, in an effort to sell me a new phone and a new deal…unfortunately I like to humour them and listen to their deal for a while before telling them that I’m happy with what I’ve got, something they usually follow with a repeat of their “better” offer, filled with things I don’t want. After this I reveal to them that I asked a few months ago to be removed from their marketing list, to which they assure me that it was a different department, and I assure them that it was their department, and they hang up.

Whilst Telstra’s phone calls on the matter are most annoying, it was just what I needed to lift me out of a peculiar mood, and put me in to either a deranged or insane frame of mind.

It will be interesting to see what else will happen today, and the first fourteen hours have been most entertaining.

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What a good question…I’m glad five people have felt a need to email that question to me in the last three hours.

Long story short, they’re invisible and will remain that way until I write them. This week has been a bit out of the ordinary for me and unfortunately at 2am the only thing that had any appeal whatsoever was sleep, and plenty of it.

The radio reviews will come in time, and if you ask very nicely Kevin Woolfe might get ACTTAB to open a market on it…although I suspect that they will appear long before ACTTAB even consider it.

If you’re wondering why I keep planning on writing the radio reviews and keep putting them off, it’s because they each take over an hour. Reviewing an hour of radio takes a bit longer than an hour, and requires my full concentration. There is no point in me doing it when I’m going to be distracted or fall asleep.

Samuel

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All this talk about swimming pools is making me cold…or at least bringing back cold memories. I never did like swimming in anything other than the nicely heated baby pool (pity I'm over eight years old), and I always took a long time to get in to the cold water of the normal swimming pool.

That being said, I was never very good at swimming lessons once I was in the pool either…I remember one year when we were being assigned to various swimming classes and the teacher started talking to her supervisor while I was in the pool in an effort to work out what they were going to do with me…that had never seen a student swim backwards with a kick board before!

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I often hear people who visit Canberra saying that Canberra is too hard to get around because they keep getting lost and going around in circles.

The last person I heard saying that was 2UE’s Paul Makin, shortly after 12:30 this morning. Rather than getting in to a debate with him about how much easier it is to get around Canberra than Sydney, I decided to offer him a bit of wisdom…just after 2am.

“You do realise that this is the home of bureaucracy!”

Now if that doesn’t explain why people in Canberra go around in circles, I don’t know what does!

Samuel

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I don’t think that anybody other than the deluded would be surprised that David Hicks pleaded guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organisation earlier today…it hardly matters whether he did it or not, all that matters is that he has more chance of seeing Australia as a free man again by pleading guilty than pleading not guilty.

He has, however, entered a not guilty plea to the charge of providing support to a specific terrorist act.

All that is left now is for him to explain what he did to the military court, and then for him to be sentenced. A deal is in place for him to serve any jail time here in Australia, and seeing as he has already served about five years in Guantanamo Bay, it’s not inconceivable that he could be a free man very soon.

It’s quite interesting to look at the results of the following poll, which finished on the 11th of March.

How long do you think it will be until David Hicks is back in Australia?

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Congratulations to 2UE’s John Stanley and his wife Elissa who have recently celebrated the birth of their first child.

Just for the sake of fun, here is the “card” I sent to John and Elissa by fax last year when they got married and had their first honeymoon at the Melbourne Cup.

Whilst I have already sent John, Elissa and Bub an email, I would like to take this opportunity to publicly wish them all the best for the many years they have to come. I do have to wonder if John will get any sleep at night in the next two years though? Perhaps he’ll move to middawns?

Samuel

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It looks like we finally have everyone looking at the new server, so I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the mess last week during the move to the new server. For most people it happened within hours, but some of you have ISPs with DNS servers which only update once every quarter of a blue moon…even worse, the ISPs who do that tend to run transparent proxies, so using different DNS servers doesn’t help either as the proxy uses the out of date DNS servers.

Anyway, it’s all over now, you’re all here on the new server, I’ve had fun talking to a few ISPs about their DNS servers, and I’ve still got to copy the favicon across.

I’ll see about getting the footy tipping results online some time in the next twelve hours, and tomorrow is going to be a triple radio review Wednesday!

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This week’s award goes to The Pointer Sisters, and the feature song is Neutron Dance. Some of you might remember it from Beverly Hills Cop.

I don’t want to take it anymore
I’ll just stay here locked behind the door
Just no time to stop and get away
‘Cause I work so hard to make it everyday

Whoo oooh
Whoo oooh

There’s no money falling from the sky
‘Cause a man took my heart and robbed me blind
Someone stole my brand new Chevrolet
And the rent is due, I got no place to stay

Whoo oooh
Whoo oooh

And it’s hard to say
Just how some things never change
And it’s hard to find
Any strength to draw the line
Oooh, I’m just burning doin’ the neutron dance
Aaah, I’m just burning doin’ the neutron dance

Industry don’t pay a price that’s fair
All the common people breathin’ filthy air
(Lord have mercy)
Roof caved in on all the simple dreams
And to get ahead your heart starts pumping schemes

And it’s hard to say
Just how some things never change
And it’s hard to find
Any strength to draw the line
Oooh, I’m just burning doin’ the neutron dance
Aaah, I’m just burning doin’ the neutron dance

Whoo oooh
Whoo oooh
I’m on fire, yeah
I’m on fire, yeah

And it’s hard to say
Just how some things never change
And it’s hard to find
Any strength to draw the line
Oooh, I’m just burning doin’ the neutron dance
Aaah, I’m just burning doin’ the neutron dance

I know there’s a pot of gold for me
All I got to do is just believe
Oh, I’m so happy, doin’ the neutron dance
And I’m just burning, doin’ the neutron dance
I’m so happy, (It’s in my hands) doin’ the neutron dance
Well
I’m just burning, (It’s in my feet) doin’ the neutron dance
Well well well well
Whoo oooh
Whoo oooh